"It used to be different. People were..."

But Harper wasn't really listening, she was looking at Jill and Abby in the freshly mown field to her left, running around together. It wouldn't be long until fall was just around the corner and the farmers would be plowing all the fields to reseed them. Although it was still a few weeks away, some farmers weren't too happy to see one or more dogs in their fields, even if they couldn't destroy anything. If the corn or rapeseed was growing, she could understand that dogs shouldn't be allowed to run around there, or that the grass was for hay. It was all understandable.

"Uhm....that doesn't make much sense," Harper's eyebrows knitted together and with an uncomprehending look, she looked directly at Madison, who had told her how it had been a few years ago and how they had been together, "Then why would she go with him? An affair would make more sense, but hey."

Always that dangerous half knowledge of people. Just because Asher and Olivia were seen together every day, walking the dogs, didn't automatically mean they were married. There were plenty of people who walked together because they met on the way, like Isabelle and Harper had just done. If two women or men walked together a lot, it wouldn't be immediately obvious that they were together. Besides, why would Isabelle be out with Koda?

Oh, nonsense, that's a completely different dog, no different from Koda, and the fact that you never see both dogs at the same time should also be completely normal. Wow. All right, all kidding aside. If there was a second Rottweiler in the neighborhood, you'd know about it, so this nonsense with Asher and Olivia was just too stupid. Oh, Isabelle only ever borrowed Asher's dog or vice versa, so no nonsense.

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The worst thing, which I only realized now while writing, is to work out the characters and events so that they are "believable" and don't become a total cliché.

The well known "This story is based on real people and events" should be based on what is said and not on the characters, which could not be further from reality, otherwise I would sooner or later hate the story.